Happy Wednesday! We’re entering another round of performance season, so my schedule is full of concerts and recitals. Not to mention that my older one is running track this spring, so that means practices and meets.
Yesterday, I posted that I’m stepping away from book reviews for a bit. It’s become more than I can manage right now and is contributing to my stress. I don’t think I’ve read many books just for fun in the last couple of years, and I miss it.
Meanwhile, I’m continuing to work on multiple projects. My former missionary short story and Drumbeat are my priorities. Jamie and Cian finally got their act together and let me know why they don’t like each other (boils down to stubbornness and misunderstandings, but with good reasons behind both—what they have in common is being fierce advocates for what they believe is right). I’m continuing to post snippets from that, since I’m about halfway done with the first draft. Note: I didn’t write their signed conversation in ASL syntax because it doesn’t make for smooth reading.
WIPmath: 5/10/2017 = 10 + 2 + 1 + 7 = 20 sentences.
Cian slid into the seat beside Gemma, and she took his hand and squeezed it. They struck up a conversation, but Cian kept glancing over at Jamie, which made him uncomfortable. He wanted to leave, but it felt rude to do so when Cian had only been there a few minutes. It would be obvious Jamie didn’t want to be around him. Not that sitting there with no idea what to say to him was any better.
He caught Brandon telling Cian something about Jamie’s band, but he missed the rest of the exchange or why Brandon had explained. Jamie didn’t care. He went to take a sip of his drink and realized he’d finished it already. On the verge of going to the bar for another one, Jamie paused at the hand on his arm. It was warm, and the grip was firm but not unpleasantly so.
“You don’t have to go,” Cian said, his soft, lilting accent making the words sound almost teasing. His bright blue eyes twinkled, and Jamie caught a glimpse of Cian’s hearing aids. They were custom designed to look like silver snakes, twisting up and over his ear. Jamie liked the way they looked on him, though he would never say so.
Jamie nodded at the bar and signed, I was going to get another drink. You want something?
Cian looked surprised, but he acknowledged Jamie. Water, please.
The conversation had been almost friendly, but Jamie knew it was all on the surface. He twisted away from Cian and made his way to the bar to order their drinks.
Like what you read? Be sure to check out the other entries and add your own. Just post a bit of your WIP, connect it to the date, and link up with us. Many thanks to Emily Witt for giving us this space. Happy reading and writing!
‘Almost’ friendly… It’s a good start! 😀 Those hearing aids are so cool. I was thinking about when we write non-English dialogue but use English. We wouldn’t use the syntax/grammar of the represented language (probably just as well). Would you say it’s different with ASL (or other sign language)? I hope that doesn’t sound like a criticism, because it’s not at all. I’m curious, because I’ve never written characters who use sign language.
I did a ton of research before writing, and I learned a whole lot. There’s no real agreement on the subject, but in general, use of ASL syntax really doesn’t make sense in writing a novel. Here’s a sentence from J’s recent video project at school: “Me nervous do what? Draw corner go to.” Translation: “It makes me nervous drawing corners.” (He was explaining about drawing mazes.) ASL syntax isn’t actually difficult to pick up (it has a really easy formula), but you can see why it would be unpleasant to read an entire conversation written that way, especially for anyone who isn’t familiar. So I opted to write actual dialog and simply indicate they were signing. But I also chose not to make Cian the token Deaf character, which should balance it out. I hope.
That’s a great example. I’d struggle to translate a conversation, I must admit, and BSL is probably different again (I don’t know it well enough to tell).
Well, if Jamie can’t figure out how to get along with Cian, I’m sure I can find a spot for him here somewhere. 😉
J informed me my translation was wrong, LOL. He says he actually said “When I get nervous, I go draw in the corner.” So even knowing the syntax and the signs, I had no idea what he meant. His teacher and someone fluent would have, though. I only know a very little bit. BSL is very different from ASL; ASL is like French sign, which is where it comes from.
I promise, you can have Cian if the two of them refuse to play nicely. 😉
Man, I got hooked by those hearing aids too, haha. Great snippet! And it definitely piqued my interest. Can’t wait to read more! ?
Ha! Pinterest is my favorite place to get images for stuff like that. There are so many awesome hearing aid designs—everything from the Hulk to girlie skulls to ones that attach to ear gauges. The cobra one I saw doesn’t quite look like what I’ve described, but it’s pretty close.
I had a similar adventure when I researched absinthe spoons. Now, I hate the taste of licorice and/or anise, so I’m not likely to ever try absinthe myself, but those spoons – they make me swoon, and the whole absinthe experience became a theme and a symbol for what was going on with the characters in that extremely dark fan fic.
I’m with the camp loving Cian’s hearing aids, and his name, too.
That’s really cool! I enjoy the research. I’ve been looking at web sites for how to best represent Cian’s role as a dance teacher primarily for Deaf and disabled students, and there are some really neat things out there.
I love his name. 🙂 I knew someone by the same name, but his parents Americanized the spelling with a K. I’ve always thought it had such a nice sound to it, so I found a use for it in a story.
I love the description of the hearing aids. And this interaction. Hope they decide they do like each other. 😉
Oh, I think they’ll get there. 😉
Lovely interaction!
That’s really interesting as I was wondering not long ago about what the differences would be between ASL (though in my case, it was Australian) and our spoken English. One of the local colleges does a six-week night course teaching the basics which I’ve been intending to do for a while but just never seem to have the opoprtunity to get onto it.
I do wonder if the friendliness was quite as on-the-surface as Jamie thinks?